Under pressure, Democrat Senator Mark Pryor refuses to endorse same-sex “marriage”

by Kirsten Andersen

LITTLE ROCK, AR, April 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, D-AR, is so far bucking the trend of Democratic lawmakers jumping on board the pro-same-sex ‘marriage’ bandwagon.

Mark Pryor

“I oppose same-sex marriage, and I’ve been very clear about that for a very long time,” the second-term senator said on a conference call with local reporters Wednesday. “That’s the way I will vote. If that’s what it comes down to, that’s where I am.”

Currently, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on whether or not the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans gay marriage on the federal level, should be struck down as unconstitutional. Pryor says he believes DOMA to be legal, but acknowledges that if the Supreme Court decides otherwise, legislators will have to make some tough choices about expanding an already stretched federal budget to include benefits for same-sex couples.

“On the benefits issue, I said to ‘put me down in the undecided category,’” Pryor told Bentonville’s Channel 5 News in an e-mail. “By that I meant that, depending on what the U.S. Supreme Court decides, I will evaluate whether federal benefits should be available to gay couples.”

Added Pryor, “Of course, I will consider the impact any extension of benefits would have on the federal budget.”

Pryor is one of only three Democratic senators to publicly oppose gay unions. The others are Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. All three represent states where same-sex “marriage” is deeply unpopular. In 2004, about 75 percent of Arkansas voters backed an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman. That same year, Louisiana voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of a similar constitutional ban on gay marriage. Same-sex unions are also illegal in West Virginia according to state law.

Sen. Landrieu told CNN that while she is personally in favor of legalizing same-sex unions, as a senator she feels obligated to represent the will of her constituents. “My state has a very strong constitutional amendment against gay marriage and I think I have to honor that,” said Landrieu.

The three holdouts are in the minority of Democrats in the senate. More than half of Democratic senators have come out in favor of same-sex “marriage” since President Obama endorsed it last year and made it a centerpiece of his agenda. In the past week alone, Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-IN; Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND; and Tim Johnson, D-SD have all announced their support.